Early last week I saw what I took to be a marsh tit or a willow tit as I was walking through the woods between Farnborough North and Frimley. It was about the size of a great tit but had a light grey body and the top half of its head was black. I assumed it was a tit because it was fairly dumpy and rounded. It didn't occur to me that it might be a blackcap because I thought they, being warblers, were slimmer. However, on Friday I was walking past the same spot when I saw two birds in a bush, one with a black cap and one with a brown cap. They were obviously a pair of blackcaps, even though they were rather dumpy, the one with the brown cap being the female.

I have seen male blackcaps singing along that stretch of path before, a year or two ago. Zoe has also seen male and female ones in her great aunt's garden in Egham.